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This was another short notice outing utilising what looked like a good weather window. Parminder was unavailable, so my plan was to visit a couple of the Lawers group that Parminder has already bagged. My last attempt at these two didn't exactly go to plan, it was just over 2 years ago when I was heading down the straight into Lochearnhead, when a couple of deer decided to cross the road without looking. I manage to avoid one, but the other rearranged the front of my car in rather a bad way resulting in my car being off the road for a month. So it was time to try again, I was planning to drive but as George has a fancy 4 wheel drive machine he offered. The last time I was on the single track road up to Lawers was for Tomsie's compleation and that must be about 4 years ago. First thing I noticed was the lack of forest on either side of the road before the cattle grid. Another thing, I still can't get used to the Lawers car park being on the left.
We just about managed to follow the WH route clockwise
We left George's at 7am and were walking just before 9am, there was a bit of ice on the single track road and snow higher up where we were parking.
Nice new sign
Not sure of the significance of the huge cairn?
George almost ready, note the snow on the road
Looking down on the lochan we are all familiar with - Lochan na Lairige
Very patchy snow initially
It was difficult trying to follow the path
The first part of the walk round Meall nan Eun to Coire Gorm is over rough boggy ground and not what you would describe as fun, once across Coire Gorm the ground started to firm up and the snow was no longer patchy. We decided to try our usual approach and head directly for the summit. Luckily there were a few footprints in the snow possibly from last weekend, so we were able to utilise them to guestimate how deep the snow would be when you plonked your boot down.
Our first target
A few stalactites
A few more
George posing in front of the round lump Meall a'Choire Leith
Frozen puddle
Footprints going up to follow - thank you to whoever was the good samaritan
George just loves the ascents
Another pause to pose
Early look at the 2nd hill on the menu Corranaich
Taken on the rounded plateau looking towards Lawers with it's own cloud
The not very big cairn on Meall a'Choire Leith, this may bring a tear to George's eye - poles, more of that later
Video on the summit of Leith
Looking across to our next Meall and the broad ridge to get there
Descending off Leith was easy, the path goes off to the left but as usual we opted for the direct approach, once at the bottom the long gradual ascent then began. Once again there were footprints but there had been snow since they were made, ideally I tried to find ground that had the least amount of snow on but that was proving difficult.
We are going up the slight incline then swinging round to the right
Looking back to the round lump of Leith
We are turning right, looking at Lawers & Ghlas
George obviously not happy with my trail blazing
Summit still looks quite a bit of distance away
George now following in my steps
Plenty of white stuff on the rest of the range
A few more undulations before the summit, the sun makes the photo more dramatic
Looking back to Leith
Looking SW towards Tarmachan
Taken on the summit of Corranaich looking south, very windy and spindrift
Another small summit cairn, this time on Corranaich
Spindrift
A much shorter video on the summit of Corranaich, when you watch it you will understand why
Not sure what direction this is, shows how poor the visibility got
We didn't linger very long on the summit and no sooner had we descended about 5m to the west someone switched off the wind - it was completely non existent. The WH route takes you SW down the obvious shoulder, we didn't fancy that so we again opted for the direct descent. Had there been no snow it would probably have been a no go, it was fairly steep but we have descended much steeper. It was a rapid descent and the height was lost very quickly.
Descending now, George in his element
Looking back uphill, doesn't look very steep
What a difference it makes when you can see where you are heading
Still doesn't look steep
Looking west
Looking back uphill again
Nearing the lower slopes now
Looking north, snowline rather evident
Looking back
The lochan by the road again, water level very low
This turned out to be a fabulous day, a huge thanks to George for volunteering to drive and for being great company. One thing that made me smile was Naismith - the route above that I plotted would only take him 3hrs and 1 minute, we were really pleased with our time especially in wintery conditions.
